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Dennis TAN Wei JieHonours Student
Email: dennis.tan(AT)u.nus.edu |
Biography
I am a final-year environmental studies undergraduate with diverse interests. I have a strong interest in nature-based climate solutions, and am currently working to model coastal blue carbon using environmental DNA. Beyond NCS, I am also involved in research to catalogue the extent of spider (Arachnida: Araneae) diversity in Singapore. I am also passionate about the intersections between religion and the environment and run a non-profit group advocating for environmental action in the Christian community.
Honours Project
Tropical coastal blue carbon is stored in shallow-water ecosystems such as mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and macroalgal beds. Carbon is also exported from these ecosystems offshore and into sediment pools in the form of cellular organic carbon that comprises DNA among other components. Environmental DNA (eDNA) has recently shown exceptional promise in the identification and quantification of macrophytes such as mangroves, seagrasses and macroalgae from coastal sediment and seawater. My project aims to develop an eDNA approach to detect and quantify tropical coastal macrophytes and develop a monitoring system to track nearshore stocks and fluxes of blue carbon by sampling and sequencing DNA in coastal sediment and seawater.